As another school year begins, this piece was meant to discuss the French ban on the hijaab in relation to the implications it bears for Muslims worldwide in the education of their children. We were meant to ask ourselves a few more questions on the choices we face, as well as examine the reasons for the deep seated hostility that Muslims seem to have to contend with, everywhere. But the tragic events in that school, in Beslan, Russia put paid to all that. By now, you are aware that a group of men (and women) invaded a school event and took about a thousand children and their parents hostage.
They claimed this action as part of their war for the independence of Chechnya,the embattled region with a predominantly Muslim population. Their only condition for freeing the hostages was that Russia withdraw from Chechnya and declare its independence. Russia has very high stakes in Chechnya. The Russians have been fighting aprotracted war against Chechen opposition a brutal war the Russians feel they must win, to teach their other adversaries a lesson, and to hold on to what is left of the fractious Russian republic. In fact, elections had just been concluded in Chechnya in which the pro-Russian candidate got an overwhelming majority. Even biased umpires declared the electoral process thoroughly flawed. But since Russias actions were meant to prevent "Muslim fundamentalists and terrorists" from having a Taliban-like enclave in Europe, the international community wisely kept quiet, as it has in the face of years of Russian oppression of the Muslims in Chechnya.
So,was the loss of a "mere" one thousand people meant to sway Russia? The hostage-takers wanted to draw international attention to events in Chechnya once again. But as it turned out, the Russian army invaded the school and in the carnage that followed, over 320 people, most of them children, were massacred. The Russians claim that the invasion became necessary when the hostage-takers began to shoot at escaping hostages. The hostage-takers have all been reported killed, and we are not likely to know the truth. When confronted with the venomous reactions that are sure to spew forth against Islaam on account of this event, we will again find ourselves in a quandary: shall we condemn these militants and renounce the worthy cause they seem to be fighting, or shall we simply condemn their tactics, support their cause, but disown them from the Muslim family? Chances are that we will find it easy from the safety of our homes and the comfort of our air-conditioned offices to condemn the militants and declare their actions inconsistent with Islaam. We will find ample justification for this conclusion, but in the wake of this and other atrocious calamities being fomented in our name, we must ask ourselves other questions.
When Muslims presume to act in the name of Islaam (in war or peace), how come they dont seem to know or want to abide by the rules that Islaam sets forth for their actions? When does a freedom fighter become a terrorist is it possible to be one and not the other? Muslims have had to fight wars before now in defence of faith or country. Have children and women ever been fair targets in their wars? Is this how pathetic the situation of the Muslims has become, that we have to consistently provide our enemies with ammunition to justify and execute their atrocities against us? Are we so pathetic, so desperate, so rudderless that any group of apparently unstable but obviously misguided extremists could just raise our banner and presume to fight our causes? And if the militants and terrorists are not fighting for us, then who is?
In truth, deviant actions (i.e. using evil methods to fight against evil) strengthen the hands of our enemies against us. What happened after September 11? Our "heroes" claimed to have acted for us in that event, but shall we compare the losses the Muslims have suffered since in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere with the losses inflicted against the U.S. on that day? On what side of the equation shall we place the several benefits the Americans have gained in these places and elsewhere? The Chechnyans had some sympathy before this and the Chechen cause remains worth defending but who will stand in support of killers of children? Secondly, however much we deny them,the militants continue to be held up as our voice, our face. In truth, we will continue to be humiliated by their actions and by our own inaction until we return to the true path:the path that gave our forerunners success. In truth, the basis of our weakness is not to be explained in military or political terms. Rather, we are Muslims but we take to the ideals of Islaam at our convenience.
We are weak because we are weak in our practice of Islaam. We cannot defeat our enemies by picking and choosing which "version" of Islaam we want to practice, and we cannot win against evil by compromising with it. We will prevail, but only if we first retum to the pristine practice of lslaam. In education and in commitment to the true ideals of Islaam. Therein lies the anecdote to our weakness; therein lies the seeds of freedom for those who have held themselves hostage to ignorance and weakness .